At a community centre in a quiet corner of Possilpark in North Glasgow, chatter and the clinking of cutlery fills the room, as members of the local Chinese community gather for their weekly lunch club. For many it’s a chance to catch up with friends and enjoy a nutritious meal – traditional Chinese home cooking, of course.

The delicious dishes of fried vegetables, meat and bone broth are all prepared by volunteers using Chinese vegetables like winter melon sourced from their community allotment. 

Today, there is an added air of excitement as the Glasgow Chinese Recreation Centre celebrates a National Lottery grant – the result of its first ever funding application.

It is one of 48 groups sharing in £460,000 from the Ethnic Minority Development Fund which aims to break down barriers and create opportunities for ethnic minority groups across Scotland. See the full list of awards here: https://bigblogscotland.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/emdf-table.pdf

The Glasgow Chinese Recreation Centre is a volunteer-run group which regularly brings people together through a range of activities. The majority of members are older people who were isolated until they found the group. 

As well as its lunch club and a community allotment, a colourful array of exercise classes help members stay active and combat physical and mental health challenges, including tai chi, yoga and traditional fan-dancing. 

Passionate about sharing their rich cultural heritage, they’ve recently brought the art of tai chi fan (a combination of tai chi and fan dancing) to local schools, captivating students with their graceful movements. In the past few months, they’ve also showcased their talents at various events, including Edinburgh Festival Carnival and Springburn Community Street Festival, where they performed both fan-dancing and tai chi. 

If members wish to improve their language skills there are English classes to help boost their confidence. The centre also functions as an information hub, helping members get proper access to things like health services.

Weekly group outings to Ikea are a popular activity while occasional coach trips to the countryside provide a wonderful escape to nature, particularly for those without access to a means of transport.

48-year-old GuoFen Tang, from Southpark Village is a regular attendee. She loves the sense of community the centre brings.

“I love coming to the Glasgow Chinese Recreation Centre. I love the dance classes — it’s so much fun learning fan-dancing together. It makes me feel happy, gives me some exercise, and I get to meet new friends as well.”

With so much happening you’d be forgiven for assuming this centre had been running for some time. In fact, it’s only been open for three years, its popularity demonstrating the significant value it brings to the local Chinese community.

However, establishing the group was not an easy road. As is the case with many ethnic minority groups The Glasgow Chinese Recreation Centre struggled to access funding. That is until they found the Ethnic Minority Development Fund and in doing so received an award of £14,176.

A transformative collaboration between the National Lottery Community Fund and the Council of Ethnic Minority Voluntary Sector Organisations Scotland (CEMVO), this fund was designed to address challenges that often prevent ethnic minority groups from accessing funding, such as language barriers and complex application processes.

Chinese Recreation Centre Committee member Nicky (Li Kei) Donaldson was supported by CEMVO throughout the application process. He explains: 

“This was our first ever attempt at applying for funding. I helped a lot with translating and filling in the forms due to the language barrier faced by the Cantonese speaking community.

“CEMVO have gone out of their way to make the whole funding process as smooth as possible and been encouraging and supportive. Any time I faced any difficulty or challenge in completing the application there was always a team member from CEMVO available to help me through the process and offer advice and support.

“CEMVO played an essential role in us applying for, and successfully obtaining a grant. As a small, inexperienced group we are very grateful to CEMVO and the National Lottery for making it as easy and simple to access as possible.”

As the Glasgow Recreation Centre continues to thrive it stands as a testament to the power of cultural connection and communities pulling together to support each other.

Find out more about the latest funding updates by signing up to our customer newsletter.